The role and potential of umbilical cord blood in an era of new therapies: a review

In light of pioneering findings in the 1980s and an estimation of more than 130 million global annual births, umbilical cord blood (UCB) is considered to be the most plentiful reservoir of cells and to have regenerative potential for many clinical applications. Although UCB is used mainly against blood disorders, the spectrum of diseases for which it provides effective therapy has been expanded to include non-hematopoietic conditions; UCB has also been used as source for regenerative cell therapy and immune modulation. Thus, collection and banking of UCB-derived cells have become a popular option. However, there are questions regarding the cost versus the benefits of UCB banking, and it also raises complex ethical and legal issues. This review discusses many issues surrounding the conservation of UCB-derived cells and the great potential and current clinical applications of UCB in an era of new therapies. In particular, we describe the practical issues inherent in UCB collection, processing, and long-term storage as well as the different types of ‘stem’ or progenitor cells circulating in UCB and their uses in multiple clinical settings. Given these considerations, the trend toward UCB will continue to provide growing assistance to health care worldwide

Facile synthesis of highly conducting and mesoporous carbon aerogel as platinum support for PEM fuel cells

We report novel method for synthesis of carbon aerogel as platinum support for PEM fuel cells applications. The sol gel polymerization has been carried out using resorcinol and furfuraldehyde in non-aqueous medium followed by gelation at high pressure. This resulted in highly conducting and mesoporous carbon aerogel under ambient drying conditions. Platinum nano-particles are impregnated in the mesoporous carbon aerogel using microwave assisted polyol process. The support material and the catalyst are characterized by different analytical techniques like surface area analyzer, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry are used to evaluate the electro catalytic activity of the Pt/carbon aerogel catalyst using rotating disk electrode technique. Well dispersed Pt nano-particles of size similar to 3 nm on carbon aerogel showed good catalytic activity with onset potential of 964 mV and half wave potential of 814 mV towards oxygen reduction reaction kinetics. A membrane electrode assembly fabricated with the prepared Pt/carbon aerogel catalyst as a cathode and anode is tested in PEMFCs (H-2-O-2) single cell, the power density of 536 mW cm(-2) at 0.6 V is obtained at 60 degrees C under atmospheric pressure. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved